Lab Report: Carson Says Good HUD Programs Will Be Preserved

A HUD-spinning tour: In Miami yesterday, HUD Secretary Ben Carson visited an affordable housing complex that wouldn’t exist without the $950 million HOME investment program that the Trump administration now wants to slash. In a press conference, Carson “cautioned against reading too much into reports on the president’s proposed budget,” the Miami Heraldreports:

“If you look at various budget stories, it says we’re going to eliminate HOME, we’re going to eliminate CDBG, this, that and the other,” Carson said...

“What you need to concentrate on is: The parts of these programs that are functioning well—and that are maintaining people—are going to be preserved… There may be a different nomenclature. We may not call it the same thing… We are clearly going to maintain these programs that are going very well.”

Meanwhile, city officials around the country are speaking out to save HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program, with one Cleveland city councilman predicting “a crisis” if his city loses its $20 million in CDBG grants. (Crains Cleveland)

Return to the Second City: “Annex the suburbs”—the strategy a Chicago Tribuneopinion lays out for preserving the city’s population and status next to exploding Sun Belt cities like Houston. Along with tax benefits for both sides, there’s precedent from the 1889 annexation that first brought Chicago to prominence.

Toronto’s Trump experience: The Canadian city may have unique insight on Trump after living through the mayorship of Rob Ford, marked by culture wars, media circuses, and “post-truth.” The inner suburbs were Ford’s own “Appalachia,” The New Yorker writes, and the downtown core was his “coastal elite.”

Don’t DIY?:Many transportation experts are wary of the recent rise of “rogue” bike-sharing systems in areas like Austin and San Francisco, warning of threats to safety and coordinated mobility. (Next City)